Floating Settlement on the Mekong Delta

COMPETITION BRIEF

Due to characteristic of geography with the coastline is more than 3,260km long, as well as a criss-crossed river system, there is a long term historical tradition of water dwellings in Vietnam. Water dwellings have emerged and developed through the centuries and become a common type of accommodation in Vietnam. Especially, Mekong Delta is renowned for the huge number of floating villages. Water dwellers do not only make a living by capture fishing, but also by aquaculture or farming. In recent years, floating houses and floating villages have been getting also an important touristic factor. Beside traditional use of floating buildings, there is a potential of floating buildings to be a significant factor in the upcoming worldwide rise of the sea level. However, nowadays due to rapid growth of water dwellers and climate change, floating villages in Mekong Delta is coping with many serious problems and challenges. Face this reality, traditional floating settlements have to be examined and new concepts need be proposed that can secure a sustainable development for the floating settlements. The german based Institute for Floating Buildings together with Vietnam Association of Architects is organizing this competition with the intention of getting Vietnamese students to engage in developing new innovative proposals for floating settlements in Mekong Delta.

The goal of the competition is to develop and design a urban solution for a floating settlement on the defined site for aproximately 200 persons and architectural modular house types as a part of the settlement. If we presume that one house is home for 4 persons we will get arround 50 floating houses. Besides urban and architectural design sollutions there are some minimum requirements to be considered:

-connection to the land
-connection in between the clusters of houses
-energy supply concept (if the settlement is autonomous, how is ot geting -energy / is there also an architectural solution?)
-water supply concept
-waste water concept
-waste concept
-public services (comunal meeting place, eventual school, shop, medical  service)
-public space
-eventual farming solution (floating gardens)
-eventual aquaculture solution

It is expected from the participant to develope a urban and architectural solution that also considers the specific climatic situation of that region as well as the usage of materials and technologies that are affordable. The usage of local materials, technologies in it's mixture with new and innovative low budget sollutions are welcomed.

THE SITE

A part of Hau river which is closed to My Hoa Hung a vibrant isle island of An Giang province is chosen as the site of the competition. 

COMPETITON JURY

Jury members

  • Institute for Floating Buildings (BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg)
  • Vietnamese Association of Architects

Juding criteria

Concept
Execution
• S
ustainability
Feasibility
Aesthetic
• P
resentation

CALENDAR

15  May 2017: Announcement
15 August  2017: Online submission deadline!
25
  September 2017: Jury meets to deliberate and 1st round results of the best five projects announced online
29 September 2017 (expected): Final judging and final results announced,
(Five projects of final judging need to prepare models and presentation)

AWARDS and PRIZES

There are five awards which will be voted upon by the jury panel:
Winner– 1st prize : The winning entry selected by the judging panel will receive a 1000 € prize
2nd prize: The 2nd prize selected by the judging panel will receive a 500 prize.
3th prize: The 3th przie selected by the judging panel will receive a 300 prize.
Honourable mention: There will be 2 honourable mentions chosen by the jury will receive a 100prize.

SUBMISION REQUIREMENTS

Please register with your e-mail address here:  .....
Afterwards you get a link to the portal, where you can upload your submission.

The project submission must contain the following:

• Two A1 sheets (594mm[h] x 841mm[w]) in horizontal format. Participants are encouraged to submit all the information they consider necessary to explain their proposal such as site plan 1:500; plans, sections, elevations in 1:200;conceptual diagrams,visualizations, etc. The resolution of the boards must be 150dpi, RGB mode, and saved as JPG files.